The Routes Not Taken Page 22

  “The money was taken from us to give another borough a highway that starts nowhere and leads nowhere,” Keegan said on December 1. “The action of the Board of Estimate yesterday is a further indictment of promising politicians and their practise of promising anything during a campaign and then running out on their promises when performance is due.”49

  Fearing that there wasn’t enough subway construction money for Burke Avenue, Northeast Bronx civic groups attended the Board of Estimate’s December 2 meeting. The budget now allocated $3,754,980 for the Burke Avenue line ($49.1 million in 2011 dollars, according to MeasuringWorth.com). Lyons supported the budget, stating that it provided a “good start.”50

  Robert Moses was proceeding with planning for the express truck highway. On November 25, he sent his proposal to Ritchie. The highway would cost $32 million to build ($1.1 billion in 2011 dollars); subsequent funds would come from tolls. Ritchie had established a subcommittee to evaluate proposals in September. Schramek and George Mowbray represented Westchester; Mand and Johnston represented the Bronx. Schramek was chairman, and he was blunt about the priorities: they wanted “trains, not trucks.”51

  Moses was unhappy that the subcommittee’s response to him was publicized:

  This was a confidential memorandum, but Ritchie without talking to me gave it to the press, and the result was a howl from certain groups in Westchester who said that the old commuters were being betrayed by wicked slickers from the city …

  … The committee, headed by Albert Ritchie[,] does not seem to be a particularly effective one and it has a decidedly political background. The trouble is that certain people in Westchester have promised former New York, Westchester and Boston commuters that they will revive this defunct railroad and somehow make it run again.… My opinion is that the only thing to do with this committee is let them stew around for a few months while they completely exhaust the notion of reviving the railroad.52

  A few months went by, but without the results Moses expected. Northeast Bronx and Westchester groups continued to work for Burke Avenue and for the W&B’s acquisition. The Allied Civic Associations started 1939 with a petition drive calling on the city to purchase two of the line’s tracks.

  Loretta M. Pierce discussed the petition drive’s aims:

  The Westchester and Boston Committee of the Allied Civic Associations has studied the transit needs of the Bronx and the civic groups are determined that not only must this section of the Northeast Bronx have rapid transit, but that the most economical and practical way to accomplish it is by the acquisition of two tracks of the Westchester and Boston from East 180th Street to Dyre Avenue.

  With 55,000 isolated people of the northeast Bronx clamoring for relief from rapid transit worries, the committee feels that rapid transit, rather than commuter service is the sole solution.53

  Connecting the W&B with the White Plains Road line was a matter of urgent discussion. The Allied Civic Associations submitted the Regional Plan Association’s plan to Schramek, believing this would accomplish their goals. They scheduled a meeting for January 13 at Breinlinger’s Hall. There was worry that the New Haven Railroad would remove more tracks from the right-of-way, making the chance of restoring rail service more remote.

  “Commissioner Moses, working under the assumption the Westchester and Boston couldn’t possibly be made to run profitably, visualized the part the right-of-way could play in handling long distance truck traffic, and proposed his toll truck highway to be built under a state authority,” said an Allied Civic Associations official. “It is essential that every effort should be made to determine if there is any possibility of using the railroad that cost $1,000,000 a mile [$32.6 million in 2011 dollars], is admittedly one of the finest roadways in the country, and was instrumental in building the property values by many millions of dollars, before that involvement is junked to allow the expenditure of $18,000,000 for the construction of a truck highway [$586 million in 2011 dollars].”54

  It snowed on January 13, but over three hundred people attended the meeting. J. J. Mulholland, secretary of the Holy Name Society of the Church of the Nativity, read a letter to Mayor La Guardia favoring the Allied Civic Associations plan. He read the response Moses wrote in reply:

  The Mayor has given me your letter of December 22 with reference to the New York, Westchester and Boston Railway. I am frank to say that I can see no possible way of reestablishing service on this road. There are, however, other members of the Committee appointed by Governor Lehman, who have a contrary view and they are going to exhaust every effort in the next two or three months to establish the soundness of their position.

  If at the end of that time they have failed, I shall move that the committee consider the conversion of part of the railroad into a toll bus and truck route.55

  The audience booed, and Mulholland responded:

  This is not what the people of the Northeast Bronx want. We are seeking to correct an intolerable transit situation. Many thousands of names have been affixed to petitions and briefs submitted, which tell better than mere words the need of this facility to bear them to and from their work.

  The ardor of those who invested their savings in small homes and business enterprises along this route is being sorely tried, and we hope that you will find us a way out.56

  Professor Harold M. Holton, the Allied Civic Associations president, discussed their proposal: “The City of New York can give us a five-cent fare downtown and will give it to us if we demand it strongly enough. It is a natural for in these days of depleted debt margin, it saves millions of dollars.… It is a plan that can be put into operation practically immediately.”57

  Holton compared their plan to the one for Burke Avenue: “Present traffic figures also indicate that the Independent lines may shortly carry their capacity without any track extension, and it is a fact that the Second Avenue El does not carry its capacity. It has been pointed out that this route substantially dividing the area east of the White Plains [Road] line, is the natural path of transit service to this section.”58

  Working with the Allied Civic Associations, former BOT Commissioner Halley represented property holders claiming that their land’s value diminished after the W&B closed. “The residents of the Northeast Bronx are not tax dodgers.… When the Westchester and Boston closed, Chairman Delaney refused to run a shuttle line from Dyre Avenue to 180th Street because of an estimated loss of $25,000 a year [$405,000 in 2011 dollars],” William E. Johnston said. “A loss to the City of many times that sum in depreciated tax values was disregarded. Apparently the City expected to be at a loss in taxes because of the closing of the Westchester. They will learn better. Now is the time to pound home to the City officials that we must have transportation to replace the Westchester and Boston or else we must be granted a heavy reduction in assessed valuation.”59

  Holton detailed his group’s plan on February 15. He called for connecting the White Plains Road line and the W&B at 174th Street and keeping the Burke Avenue option open:

  By the inclusion of more than $3,000,000 in the 1939–1940 Capital Outlay Budget, the City of New York has signified its intention of furnishing a West Side rapid transit connection. This is by the Burke Avenue extension of the Independent Subway. Construction of this extension should be started shortly and this spur can be in operation in less than two years.

  This subway spur can and should be extended to the tracks of the Westchester and Boston at the Gun Hill Road station [of the W&B], where it can be tied in, and subway cars of the Independent system operated on and over the tracks of the Westchester and Boston to Dyre Avenue.60

  Lyons wrote to Delaney, asking when work would begin. When he didn’t receive an answer, Lyons again wrote and got an unwanted answer. Pre-engineering work had been done for about a year, but hearings on the construction work weren’t held. Bids had to be advertised and construction contracts awarded. The $3,754,980 allocated for the Concourse Extension was one-third of its possible cost. The Board of Estimate had to
allocate more money. How things proceeded depended on the BOT, which had little inclination for action. Completion was projected for 1944 at the earliest.61

  The W&B owed $313,150 in back taxes to the city ($5.07 million in 2011 dollars). The Allied Civic Associations asked the mayor to take it over, with Johnston stating:

  Parks Commissioner Moses has proposed a plan to utilize the Westchester and Boston right-of-way from New Rochelle to East 174th Street to be financed by a State Authority empowered to borrow money for the acquisition of the right-of-way and construction costs. The total estimated cost of the Moses toll truck highway is approximately $18 million of which $1.5 million is allocated for the purchase of the right-of-way from New Rochelle to East 174th Street.

  If Moses, through a State Authority, acquires title to the Westchester and Boston for use as a toll highway, there will be further decline in real estate values on property adjacent to the highway, necessitating a still further cut in assessed valuation.

  The City, faced with a tax loss of $200,000 a year [$3.24 million in 2011 dollars] because of the lack of transportation, can only retrieve that annual loss by furnishing rapid transit on the right-of-way of the Westchester and Boston.62

  Ritchie’s Committee met with Westchester officials in White Plains on February 27. New Rochelle Mayor Scott suggested that the Port of New York Authority be asked to consider operating a rail service. Johnston supported the idea, but was unhappy it had been made public, fearing Moses’s response: “In view of Commissioner Moses’ plan for a toll truck highway along the right-of-way of the railroad, it is to be expected that he will do everything he can to block any such arrangement at the White Plains meeting.”63

  The subcommittee examined the RPA’s plan, the Williamson / Quinn plan Governor Lehman vetoed, and the Sartorius Committee plan.64 The subcommittee thought Sartorius’s plan was the most feasible, as it had a financial plan they felt would provide funding for a new railroad. They urged the start of negotiations with the city government, the Westchester towns, and the New Haven Railroad on implementing the Sartorius Committee and Allied Civic Association proposals.

  Ritchie’s report, made public on March 25, called for legislation authorizing a Port Authority study on reopening the W&B. The Port Authority told the Committee they lacked funding to carry out a survey, but that “if they were requested by the legislature to make the survey and study, they would be glad to do so and submit their recommendation.”65 Moses dissented; Schramek was one of five committee members who didn’t sign the report.

  The report noted that attempts to have a private company reopen the W&B failed because the New Haven Railroad wouldn’t sell power at a reduced rate to a new operator, and wanted to be paid $110,000 annually for use of the tracks between Hunts Point and 174th Street ($1.78 million in 2011 dollars). This was a significant increase over the $40,000 paid by the W&B ($648,000 in 2011 dollars).66

  The Committee wanted Mayor La Guardia to act: “The City has not yet agreed to the proposal as to that portion of the tracks lying within the City, nor can it be said that there is a prospect that it will do so in a reasonable time, if at all. On its face, this plan would seem to have the virtue of reason as it would serve a portion of the Bronx which is not now adequately served with rapid transit facilities.”67

  Moses protested to Governor Lehman:

  The Committee was appointed to investigate all possible uses of the abandoned New York, Westchester and Boston Railroad Company. If it had been stated, when the appointment of this Committee was under consideration, that the only purpose was to attempt to revive the railroad, I am quite sure that several members of the Committee wouldn’t have accepted appointment, and this applies particularly to the members appointed by the Mayor of New York City. There could be no better evidence of the fact that other plans for the abandoned railroad were contemplated than that the Chairman of the Committee and the Sub-Committee Chairman asked me to prepare a report on the use of the abandoned railroad as a toll truck and bus route connection with the so-called Pelham–Port Chester right of way in Westchester County, that such a report was prepared, that it was issued to the public by Mr. Ritchie in spite if the fact that it was meant only for committee consideration, and that it was agreed that this plan would be taken up seriously by the Committee after it had exhausted all efforts to revive the railroad as such.

  In the course of a number of a number of years of public work, I have never been connected with such a fact-finding committee which functioned so badly. The entire approach to the subject was tricky and demagogic. No effort was made to get at the actual facts. On the contrary, it was indicated to groups of commuters and others interested in the revival of the railroad that the Committee had some magic plan to make the railroad run again in the face of the palpable and obvious figures that this could not be done without imposing a heavy burden of public expense in both Westchester and New York City.68

  The Westchester towns supported the Committee’s recommendations. Time was short. Garvin wouldn’t wait much longer to either sell the W&B to another operator or dispose of it for other purposes. Bennett E. Siegelstein contacted Westchester’s representatives, expressing interest in taking over the line. He didn’t think Lehman would allocate $25,000 for a Port Authority study ($405,000 in 2011 dollars). Schramek didn’t sign Ritchie’s report for just that reason, thinking that a plan for a private takeover was better than a Port Authority takeover.

  There was doubt about Siegelstein’s group. The Allied Civic Associations still saw Moses as a roadblock to them and the Port Authority survey with his plans. Loretta M. Pierce said:

  There is no reason to doubt Siegelstein’s prediction of the bill to finance the study of reopening the W and B by the Port Authority.

  The ability of [Siegelstein’s group] to obtain the co-operation of the City of New York is of paramount importance. To date, all attempts to reopen the road as a Westchester commuter railroad have been met with the statement of Commissioner Moses, as spokesman for the Mayor, that he is in favor of a toll truck highway on the right-of-way.

  The Allied Associations do not believe that Commissioner Moses would inject his toll truck highway into the picture if he personally believed that the railroad would be successfully operated.… If and when the railroad is sold at foreclosure, the City of New York should be the highest bidder, for as an integral part of the City transit system, the W and B has its greatest value.69

  The New Haven Railroad announced a major increase in service to Grand Central Terminal to start on May 1. It was meant to provide access to the World’s Fair, but the addition of twenty-eight new trains was permanent. Ritchie stated that he would continue the fight to reopen the W&B, but the New Haven’s action reduced the need for it.70

  His committee knew about the vandalism and theft that had taken place and how the W&B’s equipment was removed to repair the New Haven after the 1938 hurricane, and was concerned about what would happen if no action was taken.71 The Home News reported that the Allied Civic Associations wrote to the BOT asking for a start date for Burke Avenue. The BOT responded that while planning work would be completed by the end of the year, “it is not possible to state at this time when bids for the construction of the Burke Avenue extension will be advertised.”72

  The Allied Civic Associations discussed the issue at Breinlinger’s Hall on June 27. Council Members Kinsley, Deering, and Ninfo and Mount Vernon Alderman John K. Miller addressed the 650 attendees. Kinsley endorsed the purchase in his remarks:

  The New York, Westchester and Boston at this moment is a darned good bargain for the City of New York. The entire road can be bought literally for a song.

  If Bob Moses’ proposed toll truck highway could be a self-sustaining project, then the same structure as part of the City transit system would be much more so.

  You taxpayers up here must not lose sight of the fact that upon your success in this fight depends the success of the Bronx. Success for a section like this means success for the who
le Bronx. Your Councilmen are with you in this fight. We pledge our support for you now as well as before election.

  As the Bronx Home News said in a wonderful editorial today: “Build the Burke Avenue Subway—Now,” and while it is being built, tie it up with the Westchester and Boston to furnish the transportation you are fighting for. Build it now.

  … Not only has the City done nothing to remedy that situation, but on top of that has added to your taxes. While your taxes were going up, the value of the homes and stores you have built have gone down.73

  The Northeast Bronx would “use every means, including a march to City Hall and another to the polls,”74 to save the W&B “in the face of the announced intention of eventually spending millions.… It is a criminal waste to destroy one of the best railroads in the country,”75 Johnston said.

  Mand wrote to La Guardia on June 28:

  We have long sincerely recommended that the City of New York acquire rights to at least two of the tracks of the New York, Westchester and Boston within the City limits for ultimate use as an extension to the Burke Avenue route of the Independent Subway. At the time that we first made this recommendation, or at least extended our support to the idea, there was still a possibility of this railroad being rehabilitated and placed under private operation. Subsequently as you know, all efforts to bring about a reopening have failed, and at this date there is every indication that it will be totally dismantled and the right-of-way devoted to some other uses.